From the
Hearth

Why a
cooking column in Gems from Earth and
Sky?

Preparing
and enjoying food can be an act of devotion,
especially for those of us whose traditions teach
that the Earth and our bodies are sacred. I love to
cook, I love to learn about new ingredients and
methods, and I relish eating tasty, healthy meals I
have prepared myself. Furthermore, I love to cook
for others-it seems the most basic way to love and
honor another person. Food is the very stuff of
life, it is the Earth Goddess's most direct way of
caring for us. To prepare and enjoy a meal is thus
a ritual of connection, repeated day after day, in
every land, since time before memory. So my love of
cooking is more than a hobby interest; it is part
of my daily spiritual practice.

This
column is written to share my own approach to
cooking, and of course my favorite dishes. It
reflects my own preferences, and makes no attempt
to speak to a wider audience. At the outset, here
are some of my own choices regarding the food I
eat:

I
prefer vegetarian meals. I am not an animal
rights activist-I do not believe it is
intrinsically immoral to use animals for food.
However, I am appalled at the callous disregard for
animal life and welfare shown by the modern meat
industry, and cringe at the wasteful
self-indulgence of the modern American lifestyle
which drives the industry. The insistence on meat
at virtually every meal comes at a great cost to
the environment, and also to our health. The
healthiest diets on the planet are those based on
grains, legumes, and vegetables, with perhaps some
fish, seafood, or poultry and an occasional
addition. Such diets are also more ecologically
sustainable, requiring much less agricultural land
and energy consumption. I am not a strict
vegetarian - I will eat meat if someone has
prepared it for me, or if it is the only appealing
option on a restaurant menu, neither of which
happen very often. I also have a serving of fish or
seafood once every week or so. So it is not really
accurate for me to label myself a vegetarian; I say
instead that I prefer vegetarian meals, and many of
the meals I prepare are vegan: they use no animal
products at all.

I
prefer low-fat meals. I find holding my fat
intake below about 20% calories from fat keeps my
weight down and my energy level higher. There is
also a history of heart disease in my family, and
this dietary preference also helps keep the
cholesterol down. I avoid saturated fats like the
plague, and use only very small amounts of healthy
oils, like olive oil. Low-fat cooking is easy to do
when cooking vegetarian, because meat is a primary
source of fat in most diets. As a vegetarian, there
is very little "hidden fat" in the foods I prepare.
It's there in the oil or cheese (if any), and in
fatty ingredients like avocados and nuts, but
basically absent in the staples: grains, legumes,
and vegetables. Reducing fat is not just a health
issue, either. The way I see it, we are
biologically programmed to seek out fatty foods
because consuming them helps us build up body fat
to survive periods of famine. This survival
mechanism is no longer appropriate in affluent,
industrialized cultures, where we can basically eat
whenever we want. So although consuming fatty foods
every day is something that appeals to our taste
buds, it represents an unbalanced way of living, a
kind of addiction that prevents us from having a
centered, well-rounded relationship with our food
and bodies.

I
prefer meals from unprocessed ingredients.
Of course, almost everything you buy is processed
in some way, unless it comes from your own garden
or the local farmers' market. What I mean is that
my cooking emphasizes basic ingredients, such as
grains, dried beans, fresh vegetables, herbs and
spices, rather than packaged foods with
preservatives, flavorings, and other additives.
Some people dread "cooking from scratch" for fear
that it is too time-consuming and inconvenient. But
that simply depends on what dishes one prepares,
and on sometimes doing a bit of advance planning
(such as soaking beans overnight or putting them in
the crock pot to cook in the morning). Working with
basic ingredients makes me feel much more connected
to the Earth, and to peoples living in other places
and times. I don't do things like grind my own
flour or press my own olive oil, but I do try to
keep my ingredients relatively plain and simple. I
do sometimes use processed products, like TVP and
seitan, as meat stand-ins for extra protein in
vegetarian dishes.

A
common theme in these preferences is a backing away
from what I see as out-of-control consumerism in
our culture. Although I obviously do not produce
most of my own food, I like to think that the food
I eat is something I could produce, without massive
modern technology and without qualms about animal
suffering. Modern packaged food (and fast-food
restaurant fare) is loaded up with fats and
sweeteners and salt as a kind of seduction, luring
us away from the simple pleasures of nature's own
flavors. The idea is to supplant our relationship
with the Earth, replacing it with a relationship
with a corporation. This approach to food enriches
a few persons financially, but impoverishes us all
spiritually.

I'm
not a purist about any of these things, which is
why I describe them as preferences only. I don't
let any of these preferences becomes sources of
stress in my life. I don't become anxious over
trace ingredients or which corporations own which
brands. I like my cooking and eating experiences to
express a connection with the plants and creatures
of the Earth, and with peoples in different times
and places who have developed wonderful cuisines,
out of love for delicious flavors and healthy
living.